6 Writing Techniques I Learned at Storymasters

Today’s guest is David Bruns, the creator of the sci-fi series The Dream Guild Chronicles and one half of the Two Navy Guys and a Novel blog series about co-writing a military thriller. His latest novel is Weapons of Mass Deception, a story of modern-day nuclear terrorism that could be ripped from today’s headlines. David is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and he served six years as a commissioned officer in the nuclear-powered submarine force. After twenty years in the high-tech private sector, he traded in his frequent flyer cards for a career in writing.

Writer Unboxed is about the craft of fiction and my post is about the craft lessons I learned from attending a StoryMasters workshop. I approached WU first because of your connection with Don Maass. My hope is that other writers will be encouraged to use workshops as a way to hone their writing skills.

Sometimes you just need to jump into the deep end of the pool. Take, for example, my New Year’s writing goal to attend a craft workshop. When the opportunity to attend StoryMasters in February came up on my radar screen, I decided to knock out one of my 2015 goals early in the year.

[pullquote]StoryMasters is a 4-day intensive seminar on the craft of writing co-taught by Chris Vogler, James Scott Bell, and Don Maass, all well-respected teachers in the fiction writing community. [/pullquote]

StoryMasters is a 4-day intensive seminar on the craft of writing co-taught by Chris Vogler, James Scott Bell, and Don Maass, all well-respected teachers in the fiction writing community. Using complementary teaching and story-building techniques, the three “masters” each shared an entire day with us. Here’s a sampling of what I learned.

1. Every scene is a transaction. We’re taught to think of scenes as conflict, but Chris Vogler suggested we approach each scene as a deal. Character A wants something from Character B–how will she get it? Deceit? Bribery? Pleading? Then, as any salesman worth his salt will tell you: when you get to “yes,” end the meeting! Don’t let the scene drag on. Bonus tip: cut the last 2-3 lines from your scene to see if you can also end it with an increased sense of “what happens next?”

2. “A story is a conspiracy to teach a lesson.” I liked this Chris Vogler quote so much it now occupies a spot on my wall. Audiences come for the thrills (the external story), but they stay for the moral lesson (the inner journey). Give the people what they want.

3. The Mirror Moment. A few weeks ago, as I was revising my own novel, I had a character that just would not cooperate. A writer friend read the manuscript and pointed out to me that my character lacked a “turning point.” It was true. I had done some great buildup and resolved things at the end, but completely missed the scene where she faces herself and makes the decision to change. In his book, Write Your Novel From the Middle, James Scott Bell makes the argument that the “mirror moment” is the place to start with your character. Until you decide how your character is going to change, you don’t really have a story to tell.

4. Pet the Dog. This is another euphemism from Mr. Bell to represent the point in the middle of the story where you remind your reader why they should care about your flawed protagonist. When Dirty Harry saves the stray puppy in a gun battle, or when Katniss teams up with Rue in The Hunger Games, these are “pet the dog” moments where the protagonists put themselves at risk to help a weaker character. This vulnerability builds an emotional bridge to your reader.

5. Micro-Tension. A real eye-opener for me was Don Maass’s session on how to introduce that “I have to keep reading” feeling into your prose, a state he calls “micro-tension.” He took random selections of dialogue, exposition, and action from workshop attendees and demonstrated how we could infuse an element of anxiety or uncertainty into the story that can only be resolved by reading the next line. You want your readers to keep turning pages? Introduce micro-tension into every single sentence.

6. Use Secondary Emotions for Maximum Impact. A corollary to Maass’s micro-tension is the use of secondary (conflicting) feelings to amplify the emotional impact on the reader. Consider this line: “I recoiled in horror at the bleeding body lying in the center of the floor” with this one: “I loved seeing him lying bleeding on the floor—and I hated myself for it.” Why does the second pique your interest? Because the character is experiencing two conflicting emotions—joy and horror—at the same time and we want to know why. Maass went through a process to help us excavate the emotions of a scene and retell it for maximum impact by focusing on secondary emotions.

These six gems were only the tip of the iceberg. By the time the four days ended, my head was bursting with ideas about how to implement all these wonderful techniques. In case you’re wondering, my secondary emotion was a paralyzing fear that maybe I wasn’t up to the writing challenge.

Comments

I instinctively use a lot of the ‘conflicting emotions’ method – but I didn’t realize it until you mentioned it. Otherwise the scenes are flat, and nobody cares what happens, including the writer.

Thank you for making it explicit. I find all techniques work better for me once I use them deliberately. Less floundering around for something that ‘feels right.’

Maass’ micro-tension method is my secret weapon. I don’t even start writing a scene until I’ve filled in my template for it – I list the 14 kinds of micro-tension he mentions in The Fire in Fiction, and answer for myself how each one might fit into this scene. Not to increase the length, but to beef up the bland pieces.

You raise a great point. Lots of times we do things instinctively and they work so we keep doing them, but never really delve into the “why.” The StoryMasters course helped to make me aware of what I was doing right and showed me some new techniques to try. Your micro-tension template sounds like a great tool!

Thanks for sharing this glimpse at what must have been a very special conference, David.

There’s an almost magical feeling, one that’s difficult to convey to those not there, about attending an event like this. I think it’s the intimacy and immediacy of it – the shared communion of experiencing it with others. And of course there’s the power of the enthusiasm of the presenters. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been “taken to church” by Don. Would love the opportunity to see this particular set of sermons.

I got the impression that every Don Maass seminar is a little bit different. He lectured without slides and often with notes. I’d read his book 21st Century Fiction before the conference and wasn’t sure what to expect. The end result was a very personal workshop that gave me a LOT to think about.

I was at the same conference, and have since recommended it to many of my writing friends. I’ve been spending the time since revisiting my manuscript looking for ways to improve my use of micro-tension, conflicting emotions and pet the dog moments.

My recent “plunge” has been to hit the “submit” button. It’s hard to put my work out there, but my confidence has been building, and it turns out, it’s not as frightening a concept as I once thought. I recently posted a piece on my blog that was challenging and vulnerable. It turned out to be a good thing.

Thanks, Dave, for the reminder of an excellent conference, and the excellent concepts I’ve been wrestling with since it ended.

I just took the plunge with a WIP I’m writing now. The challenge was to plan every scene in advance. Not fully, just the mission. It wasn’t easy, but what I found is that I’m never at a loss what to write next. By doing this I can then concentrate on all aspects of scene construction like these excellent tips above — some of which I’ve never heard before. So I guess I’ll be taking another plunge. :-) Thank you for sharing these techniques!

Hi Sue –
Thanks for the note. Getting the scene “mission” down is crucial–what Chris Vogler calls the “transaction.” FYI – another great resource for pre-writing planing is Rachel Aaron’s book “2K to 10K.” I think it’s 99 cents on Amazon and you can read it in a few hours, but it’s chock-full of great tips to me the words come out faster.
Take care –
David

I totally agree. I participated in a Storymasters seminar in Mpls and it blew me away.

Jim, Chris and Don (excuse the familiar but these guys are informal and approachable) collaborate to create a terrific learning event. They’re each hugely gifted and their views and teaching methods work synergistically. The result is greater than the sum of each of their considerable teaching talents.

The seminar also had a great vibe. These accomplished gentlemen are funny, bright and their passion and appreciation of story sets the tone.

David, what a nice post to find this fine morning. Thank you so much for the kind words.

It is such a blast for me to teach with Don and Chris. It became clear the first time we did this that we complement each other’s content and style. And it’s fun just to hang out with each other and the people who attend…there’s always a good vibe going on.

I think you hit the nail on the head, James. The chemistry between the three of you was apparent, but what I really liked was the fact that all of you approached story from different but complementary angles.

David, what a nice surprise to see your post today. Just yesterday, my son and I were talking about myth. He wanted to watch Apocalypse Now and I told him how it was based upon Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, which brought us back to this workshop about story — aptly titled.

I’ve been finishing up short stories and diving into a new project in a fresh notebook since the Storymasters workshop. It’s great having their collective wisdom and their voices prodding me on. So thankful they came to Charleston.

These techniques should be taught to the sort of writers that Ray Rhamey highlights in his ‘Flog a Pro’ posts (most recently John Sandford). But Sandford & Co. don’t seem to need them to keep being represented by major literary agencies, to keep getting published by the big publishing houses, and to keep having bestsellers again and again.

It’s always a bit disappointing when you find a brand-name author who doesn’t deliver the kind of writing you expect. I read through a few of the “Flog a Pro” posts today and was surprised by some of the examples.

The reason I took the course in the first place was to improve my own craft. When I polish a piece I try to produce the very best work I can at that point in my writing career. Does that ensure commercial success? No, but it makes me feel like I’m being true to my own work.

Welcome to the growing list of excellent guests on WU! I enjoyed your article, which took me back to the day-long seminar on 21st Century Fiction by Don at the WU UnCon in November. Attending a conference on craft was one of my goals, too, and it looks like I’ll be attending another by summer’s end (the WD Conf in NYC).

Maass and JSB are a couple of my gurus; I’ve not read Vogler, but his tips seem to fall in line with the other two. It’s all about the internal human struggle, isn’t it? Flesh those suckers out and make them pop off the page in 3D (with Technicolor and Surroundsound). Give the reader something (and someone) to really care about. Pet that dang dog. Save that mangy cat (do I really have to save the cat? But I’m allergic to cats — damn those secondary, conflicting feelings).

If you get a chance to catch Chris Vogler’s seminar, you should do it. He’s much more old school hero’s journey stuff. When you overlay it onto JSB’s more analytical structural technique, the combo is very powerful.

I would definitely take the StoryMasters seminar again. I’m sure I’d get even more out of it the second time.

The micro-tension part was the most eye-opening part for me and Don really did a fabulous job with talking through real life, on the fly examples. I also think that once you start doing it, it just becomes second nature.

Hi,
I think the key to all six, or at least what they try to create, is true characters placed in situations that build empathy and an emotional response from the reader.

One thing I do to learn about individuals emotional and psychological worlds is to study psychology, especially where it concerns unconscious signs of internal pain and conflict and how people manage it, or fail to manage it.

There are books that help, but as with most I have a therapist and I use that relationship to learn more about the internal lives of people.